Global Innovation & National Interests Project Information

The Global Innovation and National Interests Project was launched in 2019 to provide thought leadership on the S&T and industrial policy shifts necessary for liberal democracies to create and capture value from technological innovation. The project focuses on evaluating and optimizing policies and operational management for research and development (R&D) activities and programs in governments, universities, and companies. A major part of the effort has focused on the challenges to establishing and running multinational, public-private applied R&D collaborations. The project work is pursued through research, publication, outreach, and virtual meetings of an international working group of experts. To date, participants have authored nine working papers and engaged in considerable grey literature output and media appearances. Three articles have been published in Issues in Science and Technology, addressing globalized S&T, economic security, and universities and national interests, with a fourth, on the roles of multinational corporations, slated for the end of 2021. The 2021 G7 Summit presented an opportunity for the project to advocate for cross-border R&D collaboration as a major topic. Issued as a summit addendum, the G7 Research Compact is a starting point to integrate S&T agreements with trade and investment agreements. Science has accepted a policy paper by working group members on this matter, to be published in late November 2021. For more information about these efforts, please visit www.brginstitute.org. The project is supported by a grant from David Sainsbury. Lord Sainsbury was the chair of J. Sainsbury plc between 1992 and 1998 and served as the United Kingdom’s minister of science and innovation from July 1998 until November 2006. He is the founder of the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the chancellor of the University of Cambridge. All posted and re-posted content is the opinion of its authors, and not of the project or BRG Institute.